U.S. Among World's Worst Surveillance Societies...ACLU

[madfloridian]

I was thinking about this article I read today because of the vote that will pass tomorrow in the Senate. A federal court has just ruled that Bush does not have the the "interent rights" he claims he has.

Yet our party is set to pass a law tomorrow that goes against the court rulings.

Amazingly, just as a federal court says he was wrong, the Congress seeks to throw the plaintiffs who proved him wrong out of court, and bar anyone else from ever asking the question again.

..."But supporters of the new FISA "revisions" say although they disagree with certain parts of the bill, they'll support it because this one really makes itself super, duper Double Secret Exclusive.

From the ACLU a shocking article, and a map showing us at the very bottom of the barrel among the worst of societies in surveillance of its people.

U.S. Among World's Worst Surveillance Societies

London-based ACLU partner Privacy International (PI) has issued its most recent ranking of the world's leading surveillance societies. By examining national policies in 14 categories such as constitutional protection, privacy enforcement, and workplace monitoring, PI has ranked nations on a scale from "consistently upholds human right standards" to "endemic surveillance societies." The United States ranked with Russia, China and the U.K. at the bottom among the worst surveillance societies.

..."With the advent of powerful cameras, sensors, satellites, and other technologies, we have begun to see the reality of a surveillance society George Orwell fictionalized in his novel 1984. The only barriers that remain to such prying eyes are political and legal.

We should be responding to intrusive new technologies by building stronger restraints to protect our privacy. Unfortunately, in the United States we are doing the opposite: loosening regulations on government surveillance, watching passively as private surveillance grows unchecked, and contemplating the introduction of tremendously powerful new surveillance infrastructures like the Total Information Awareness program that will tie all this information together.

Here is the larger map with great detail from Privacy International.

In terms of statutory protections and privacy enforcement, the US is the worst ranking country in the democratic world. In terms of overall privacy protection the United States has performed very poorly, being out-ranked by both India and the Philippines and falling into the "black" category, denoting endemic surveillance.

The worst ranking EU country is the United Kingdom, which again fell into the "black" category along with Russia and Singapore. However for the first time Scotland has been given its own ranking score and performed significantly better than England & Wales.

We are now in the lowest 7...in black.

[Marie26]

1. US & Russia

Figures. Bush & Putin are practically soulmates.

[Edweird]

2. Hardly. Putin is a shrewd bad ass. Bush is a sock puppet.

[Marie26]

3. But they both like the oligarchy, the spying, the torture, & the tyranny

When Bush looked into Putin's eyes, he saw something he liked.

[Edweird]

7. True. But one is former KGB and one dodged military service....

(not trying to dirt on your thread, I was just pointing out what a pussy w is, that's all)

[Marie26]

9. Oh, well, that's always appropriate. nt

[Art_from_Ark]

5. Here's a picture of them together

[madfloridian]

10. A sense of his soul....from the BBC

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1392791.stm

""I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straight forward and trustworthy and we had a very good dialogue.

"I was able to get a sense of his soul.

"He's a man deeply committed to his country and the best interests of his country and I appreciate very much the frank dialogue and that's the beginning of a very constructive relationship," Mr Bush said."

[arcadian]

4. You think?

[Echo In Light]

6. Shades of Orwell ...

[Duke Newcombe]

8. "We don't like what you're posting about us...

...by the way, those pajamas you're wearing are hideous."

Duke

[Trillo]

11. Been awhile since I told this story.

Once I was involved in a minor accident driving over a toll bridge with security cameras. I thought that getting some of that footage might have been useful to the insurance company, so within a few minutes following the accident, I stopped at what I'll call the "guardhouse" (because everyone inside had a badge), and while they were polite, essentially they told me I was out of luck, there was NO WAY for me to get any of that footage.

What good are surveillance cameras on a public road if they cannot be used for legitimate legal purposes?

[merh]

16. You could have obtained the video if you had subpoened it

or the government entity operating the cameras may well have had a public records law that provided that the request be made and you could have gone that route (more likely than not, the entity would require a court order/subpoena duces tecum).

These things can be done, they (the gov - local, county, state, fed) just complicate things and make obtaining public records a chore or very costly. This admin has made getting information impossible, Freedom of Information Laws, like all other laws under this admin, have been ignored and/or blatantly violated.

[Trillo]

18. While I claimed above that the police were 'polite'

they made it clear in no uncertain terms that obtaining the videos was absolutely impossible.

Perhaps the police lied to a common citizen once again. If what you said is true, that they very well may have been available if the proper procedures were followed, then some sort of indication of that would have been expected of any ethical group of law enforcers.

I think a better model might be to make all surveillance videos that show public space freely available on the Internet in an open-source type of model. It might put a chink in the Liars' Armor.

[Echo In Light]

12. Kick

[Blue_Tires]

13. freedom on the march

the companies making the surveillance equipment have been cleaning up on local, state, and federal contracts

[Echo In Light]

14. A central a$pect of the phony "war on terror."

[madfloridian]

15. "Freedom" on the march around the world....

:eyes:

[madfloridian]

17. Ooops...make that "inherent rights" in the OP

Pays not to post late at night.

[intheflow]

19. Kicking and recommending.

Not that I didn't think it was this bad, but maybe there are a few people lurking who haven't figured it out.

[madfloridian]

20. Well, it got worse today.

In spite of all the opposition, the Democrats passed the bill that...

"The bill would authorize massive warrantless surveillance.

The bill would require no individualized warrant even when an American’s communications clearly are of interest to the government.

The bill would curtail effective judicial review of surveillance.

The bill would grant retroactive immunity for wrongdoing.

The bill would not provide a reasonable sunset."